I recently had the fortune of noticing this incredible chrysalis hanging from a thread wrapped several times around a tulip poplar sapling’s branch. Whatever’s inside is safely ensconced in its protective, papery wrapper…hopefully, to emerge soon in its full glory. Dare I hope to witness its emergence? I hope that something beautiful and utterly wondrous comes forth. I really do.
Category: Wildlife
Haiku: Abandoned Abode
I love finding birds’ nests, as each is unique and usually includes some bit of human detritus – like the poly batting in this one. That birds would incorporate our trash in building their artful nests never fails to amaze me.
Continue reading “Haiku: Abandoned Abode”Musings: Mice Count, Too
When I went to refresh the pigs’ water bowl this morning, I found a dead field mouse floating in it. The pigs currently live in the barn until the pastures are ready for them to return (in the spring), so mice aren’t surprising…but this is the second mouse to meet its end in the bowl.
Haiku: Captivating Crescents
Who doesn’t adore a rainbow? And – even better – a double rainbow? Add some wild geese flying overhead and you get a scene that was wholly unexpected (but immensely appreciated) on a gray, wet day.
May you, too, be gifted a vision of beauty to lift the spirits.
Haiku: Lonely Bones
Walking through a pasture yesterday, I spied something white in the long grass and discovered that it was a partial skull (the mandible is missing, and it’s flipped upside down). The deer to whom the skull belongs has clearly been dead for a while, and given the austere time of year, its remains could have been scavenged by some hungry animal and the skull left where the meal ended.
Small herds of deer visit our property, grazing and resting, from time to time. Maybe this was one of those visiting deer or its offspring.
I can’t help but wonder how it came to rest here…dragged by a coyote, perhaps? It’s a stark reminder of the fleeting and fragile nature of life, especially for creatures that are wild and free.
Haiku: Tidal Pull
Watching the motion of waves has always been meditative for me, soothing and comforting. Is it because I’m a water sign? Perhaps…or perhaps it’s some faint memory of being in utero. Regardless, I could sit and stare at the water all day, thinking deep thoughts and wondering about the life in that environment, a world inhospitable to me but perfectly suited to them. Are there really two worlds, one on land and one in the sea?
Thinking about ocean life means thinking about how humans have impacted the denizens of the waterworld, like the fact that there are estimated to only be around 400 North Atlantic right whales alive now. Having been hunted to the brink of extinction in the beginning of the 20th century, banning the hunting of this species allowed their numbers to very slowly recover…until this last decade, which saw unusually high mortality, attributed primarily to human causes (ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear).
On this trajectory, one day, there may be no more North Atlantic right whales. And the planet will be poorer for it.
Read more about the plight of the North Atlantic right whales here.